Organic battleground: The best way to fight bugs is not to fight them

The black aphids clinging to the fava bean plants at the Parducci Organic Gardens started many a conversation Saturday.

"I see you have aphids, too," said one home gardener after another, asking Jess Arnsteen, hired to oversee Parducci's bio-dynamic gardens, what can be done to get rid of them.

If you don't want to use pesticides, Arnsteen said you can invite ladybugs into your garden and hope they eat a lot of aphids.

There were a lot of ladybugs joining the aphids on the fava beans, and Arnsteen said he hoped that once they were done with those aphids, they would be moving on to other areas of the garden.

If the ladybugs don't help or haven't made an appearance in your garden, Arnsteen said you can give your plants a "good, hard spray of water," or try soapy water, being sure you rinse it off after 20 minutes.

But the best defense against pests, he said, is to have strong, healthy plants.

"It's better to be plant positive than pest negative," he said, adding that organic gardeners should put much more energy into making sure they have "healthy, vibrant soil, which leads to healthy, vibrant plants" than worrying about getting rid of the pests.

"If you spend all your time attacking bugs, you may end up doing more harm than good," he said, explaining that a new, young garden is always a "battleground," but once the plants get bigger and stronger with "thick cell walls," the pests will have less of an impact.

Another aspect of organic gardening is "recycling as much as possible," he said, explaining that the fava beans are not only good to eat, but make good cover crops.

While some of the bean plants were grown for the fruit, others were grown so they could be ground up and added to the soil as a source of nitrogen, which Arnsteen said the plant grabs out of the air and stores.

Pointing out rows of garlic, onions and beets to a steady stream of visitors Saturday, Arnsteen explained that all of the garden's harvest is for Parducci's employees.

"Twice a week I bring bins of vegetables to the tasting room for the employees," he said. "Call it one of the benefits of working here. This is an amazing place to be."

Justine Frederiksen can be reached at udjjf@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @JustFrederiksen or at 468-3521.